Amar’e Stoudemire Won’t Return To Play In Israel
Amar’e Stoudemire Image by Getty Images
By Sam Kestenbaum September 1, 2017
Basketball star Amar’e Stoudemire, who led the Israeli basketball team Hapoel Jerusalem to victory in national championships, announced that he would not return to play another season.
“Although I would have liked to return for another season, the team, coach and I could not find a role that I felt would allow me to meaningfully contribute in the way I have always been accustomed to play,” Stoudemire wrote in a farewell note on Instagram.
Stoudemire wrote that he would stay on as a shareholder of the team, where he would “help make [the] team even better,” and thanked the “entire Hapoel Jerusalem organization for giving me the opportunity to retire as a champion.”
He called Jerusalem “the holiest of cities,” and hashtagged his post #shabbatshalom.
The year has been bumpy at times for Stoudemire, who moved to Israel with his family last summer. Stoudemire has called his experience with the team “a roller-coaster ride” and didn’t always get along with his head coach or Israeli officials. Stoudemire also faced public backlash after he made what many saw as a homophobic comment on Israeli TV. (He later apologized.) Stoudemire’s son was barred from playing on a basketball youth team because he was not an Israeli citizen.
Stoudemire retired from the NBA last summer to move to Jerusalem and join the team. It was a professional move for him, but also deeply spiritual. Stoudemire calls himself a Hebrew Israelite and views Israel as a sacred land that is his ancestral homeland. He was baptized in an Israelite church in Chicago called Israel of God, and also produced a documentary about the Hebrew Israelites of Dimona. During his year in Jerusalem, Stoudemire ramped up his Hebrew studies.
Contact Sam Kestenbaum at [email protected] or on Twitter, @skestenbaum
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